Those of us who use WhatsApp a lot know that the conversation list can get pretty crowded very fast with groups, plenty of family and friends, and random individual chats. That leads the important chats, the ones you come back to many times during the day, to always change their order in the list and jump up and down depending on when the most recent message was sent. So you're left skimming the list with your eyes, and sometimes scrolling down, to find that conversation you need. (Or you add a chat shortcut to your homescreen.)

WhatsApp beta 2.17.162 (and now 163) solves that by adding one very handy little feature: pinned chats. Tap and hold on any chat and you get a new pin icon in the action bar next to the delete, mute, and archive functions. Once pinned, a conversation stays on top of the list regardless of the recency of the last message compared to other chats.

You can only pin 3 chats after which you get a small toast notification message saying you can't pin more. If you change your mind, you can always unpin one of your 3 chats and choose another.

To get this option, you will need WhatsApp beta 2.17.162 or 163, which you can find on APK Mirror or grab from the Play Store by joining the official beta then waiting for the app to update.

Comments

Johnson Khundrakpam

I found this feature quite useful..

Joseph

Telegram did it

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xtremevicky

Are the 3 Telegram users here telling this has been present in Telegram since 2010?

Groosha

I can understand your sarcasm, but here's a fun fact for you:
Telegram allows its users to pin up to 5 (five) chats and these pins are synced across all connected devices (PC, smartphones...).
WhatsApp doesn't have any "sync", except regular Google/Apple/NSA backups and allows to pin only 3 (three). They could definetely remove this restriction or just increase the amount of pins. However they didn't and it looks like a cheap copy of Telegram's feature.

P.S. No, pinned chats didn't appear in 2010 :) They appeared in December'2016 among with IFTTT integration. Does your favourite messenger have it? (Spoiler: no)https://telegram.org/blog/pin-and-ifttt

Dennis Ulijn

Okay, switching to telegram because it has more pinned chats. 5! (Five)! /Sarcasm
I don't even know 5 people using telegram!

Groosha

It's only your problems then. I have more people here in Telegram than I had in WA before I completely switched to the Tg.
If you're okay with all that Facebook shit, go for it. However your "assumptions" about "5 people using" simply reveal you as a not very smart person.

Light

You must be one of those people who refuses to use social media in any form because of privacy implications. Even though, fun fact, Telegram is a security nightmare compared to WhatsApp, so it doesn't even have that going for it.

Groosha

> Telegram is a security nightmare compared to WhatsApp

Here we go again: do you have any PROOFS about it? There have been literally 0 flaws in Telegram's MTProto protocol since 2014. You either prove that MTProto is insecure or stop telling bullshit.

Light

Proves? You're talking about secret chats - regular chats just get stored as plain text.
And anyway, Telegram chats live in the cloud. WhatsApp deletes media and messages from their servers once your phone is done downloading them. Even this simple thing makes a world of difference

Groosha

> regular chats just get stored as plain text

Please, prove "plain text".

> WhatsApp deletes media and messages from their servers once your phone is done downloading them

No. There're backups in Google/Apple which store all your media. And you cannot be sure that WA actually __deletes__ that data.

Reed

Do you have some sort of proof that it is a security nightmare? Otherwise this statement is completely baseless.

Light

Storing all your chats in plaintext would be a pretty good starting point. I don't mind and in fact I use it alongside WhatsApp with no worries, but seeing it from a security perspective, it's a lot worse than WhatsApp. Go read up on WhatsApp vs. Telegram security online for further info!

xyz

His and millions of others. If you think about it, it's actually Telegram's problem. They're the ones with the low market share.

TheDrunkenClam

I don't know anyone who uses WhatsApp. Because, you know, I don't live in the Third World.

Dennis Ulijn

Again and again telegram evangelists start throwing mud when they get told somebody doesn't use it.
That third world country you talk about is the Netherlands by the way.

saf1927

Since when Europe is the third world? Telegram is a POS. Use Signal or get out.

I don't care who copies who because everyone copies everyone and I am not 13.

If you enjoy telegram good for you but stop being a fanboy.

Groosha

lol, calling somebody a "fanboy" if you have no real arguments is so easy, huh? ;)

xtremevicky

Sure.

However they didn't and it looks like a cheap copy of Telegram's feature.

Dennis Ulijn

His argument of people he knows who use chat app x and y is pretty strong.

xyz

He does have real argument, numbskull. His argument is that he knows 3 people who use your crappy telegram app. That is the most common reason why people don't use telegram.

Light

"Number of people you can message on your messenger App" is a pretty solid argument. If Telegram has such a nice interface and cloud sync and all that but I can hardly talk to anyone with it, it doesn't matter. Sorry that I don't get all the cool features, but at least it does what I need it to do and I'm not left enjoying cloud sync and stickers talking to myself or people who are on telegram but I don't want to talk about to right now

Groosha

Well, if you have such "friends" who aren't smart enough to at least try something new, that's not my problem.
Choose them wisely next time.

roberto.elena

Here is an even funnier fact:
Every time WhatsApp adds a new feature, it's a reason LESS for WhatsApp users to change to another chat app. If most people were already using the app with fewer features, why would they change now that it is a better app than it was before? Repeating "Telegram already had that" each time won't change that fact.

Groosha

Not true :)
Remember WhatsShit stories :) Facebook (probably) even had to buy 5-stars in Google Play to "hide" that 1-stars from angry users.

Well, I don't remember anybody saying "Telegram already had that" when WhatsApp introduced the new statuses, so my argument still stands.

And now, nobody remembers those, except the very few who still use them, because WhatsApp reintroduced the old statuses, so those angry uses of course kept using WhatsApp.

What is changing, exactly? Telegram gaining market share from WhatsApp? You surely have evidence of that, right?

Groosha

> «Well, I don't remember anybody saying "Telegram already had that" when WhatsApp introduced the new statuses, so my argument still stands»

Right. Because Telegram devs are smart enough to NOT introduce much-hated and useless feature :) Can't say the same about Facebook (WA owners) who are only keen on ads, not users.

roberto.elena

And yet, even Facebook Messenger is adding more users than Telegram every year, so clearly Telegram devs are not smart enough when it comes to growing their user base.

Groosha

It's easy to grow userbase when you have 1B users in your social network. Telegram has grown very rapidly for the past 2-3 years, which is a good result.

roberto.elena

It is a good result indeed. But it will never catch up. Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Wechat (and to a lesser extent Line and other more regionally focused chat apps) have so HUGE user bases, that they can't be dethroned by an app that does more or less the same (maybe with a few better features). they can only be defeated by something new that implies a paradigm shift. And that new app or service has not been invented yet.

I can see, for example, the following working in the FUTURE though: AI assistants taking over as chat apps, both by text or voice. Imagine sending a text message, an image or sharing your location, but only specifying the recipient from your contact's list, not the app needed, because that would be decided behind the scenes by your phone's assistant and the recipient's assistant, completely transparent to the user using some kind of handshaking mechanism.

Telegram gaining a significant user base: I don't see that. You say it is easy to grow your userbase when you have a 1B+ social network. Well, that is true, but that also means of course that it is EXTREMELY difficult to grow your userbase when you have to compete against that.

Light

After WhatsApp introduced stories, the shitstorm in my community lasted exactly 48 hours, then people stopped complaining altogether. Hell, some of my contacts even embraced it and post everyday. Either way - no new Telegram contacts in my address book because of that.

Groosha

I can say the same: 90% of my phone book now uses Telegram while only 40-45% use WA.

xyz

That's nice, bro. But no one cares. The reason people use Whatsapp instead of Telegram is obviously not because of the number of chats they can pin.

It's just MAU (Monthly active users) in February 2016. The overall userbase is bigger.

xyz

lol. Hilarious. The overall user base includes people like me who installed the app years ago, but use Whatsapp daily. The only number that matters is the people actively using it.

Light

Most of my address book Telegram contacts have been last seen "A long time ago". Which is, 3 years ago when it was a cool new App. Also, WhatsApp used to occasionally temporary suspend service for one day once a year if you didn't pay the $0,99 fee, after that it just gifted you free access for another year anyway. The only people not affected were early adopters, or iOS early adopters who actually paid to download the App back in the day (that's me!). On that day, people turned to Telegram. And that was it, either they never looked at it for another year or uninstalled it to free up space. Now that WhatsApp is entirely free, it even lost that purpose.

Seriously though, you can even pin 5 chats, not only three. It's funny to see WhatsApp playing the catch-up game now, but I admit I really appreciate that, because that way, both messengers get better (Telegram innovates further, WA copies again).

Nevyn

I have considered voicing my views on Telegram vs WhatsApp many times, but it's no use. People in general aren't concerned about privacy issues and so Zuckerberg raping your virtual ass is just nothing special.
I will keep avoiding his products like the filthy plague they are, and everyone else can just keep on pretending it's not happening.

Well, I do trust WhatsApp with my chats, as the end-to-end encryption should be very secure (at least the German computer magazine c't concluded this), but when you consider the amount of metadata (phone number, CONTACTS!, profile, status, online times) WhatsApp is able to access and collect (though I can't say if and what they do), I don't feel very comfortable about it..

Sadly, I can't get any of my friends to really switch. ("Why? WhatsApp works fine and nobody uses Telegram.."). I still use Telegram more than WA and I consider the chats of better quality, because my whole family uses Telegram after switching or as first messenger, and I also use it with some of my Android dev friends.

Abhinav

it is sad that telegram is the first to get all the features and Whatsapp still continues to grow :( I personally like telegram more than whatsapp.

xyz

The only problem is Telegram is perennially playing catch up for the only thing that matters - user share.

aRvInD

WhatsApp must implement Pending videos to watch as seperate option. I have more than 100+ unwatched videos and when I watch from MX player I have no clue who sent it...

Light

At last!

Antony

Everyone should use telegram instead .. I know what you will say ,it had no users!! Then invite them it is that simple. Or you will remain stuck using a primitive app (WhatsApp) forever . And remember WhatsApp one day had no users and the market was dominated by Skype and Yahoo messenger and people switched to WhatsApp since it is better. And now everyone is switching to telegram for the same reason

Reeshabh Ranjan

Atleast I can use Telegram on my PC regardless of if my phone is online or not.

Antony

The main reason I switched to telegram

Doby Gillis

How much stock do you have in that piece of shit company?

Antony

Sorry but telegram isn't trading and noone can buy stocks of a company that isn't trading 😛 even though i'd love to support them

roberto.elena

That is an apples to oranges comparison. When WhatsApp didn't exist, the user base, in absolute terms, of Skype or Yahoo messenger in mobile phones was ridiculously small compared to the 1 billion+ uses WhatsApp has now.
WhatsApp grew so spectacuraly because it captured the NEW market of people that didn't even have a smartphone before, not because it stole users from Skype.

Everybody is switching to Telegram? You are delusional.

Antony

You have made a good point in saying that WhatsApp captured those who are only on phones but very soon afterward Skype introduced mobile version and it was still more popular but over time users kept flocking to WhatsApp because it had meaningful features to the users . And the same is happening with telegram now . And there is no need to insult each other just because of a messaging app we all agree that we want the best app that serves our needs we aren't fanboys btw

roberto.elena

What you don't get is that better is not an absolute. 100% of people I care about use WhatsApp. I have been asked to install Telegram exactly ZERO times. So can you explain me how can Telegram possibly be a better chat app, despite the feature difference, when the whole point of a chat app is being able to communicate with other people? There is zero motivation for me and 95% of WhatsApp users to change to a different app. If you think otherwise, you are being delusional, and that is not an insult. If you had, for example, written a comment clearly showing that you are depressed, would you consider an insult if somebody would point that out?
I have no problem in you using Telegram, or people changing from WhatsApp to Telegram. If that works for you, fine, more power to you. The rest of the world doesn't care about your "Telegram is better" comments.

Antony

Alright have a great time using whatsapp if you really enjoy it :)

roberto.elena

I enjoy communicating with my friends and family, WhatsApp and Telegram are just tools, they don't bring any not to me :)

Antony

And you have totally ignored the part about inviting your friends and contacts to join a better messaging app btw , and you said that WhatsApp didn't steal Skype users . I am sorry but I don't agree with you first of all it stole all the potential Skype users and over time noone is signing up for Skype . And telegram is gaining user base maybe you don't see it but once any of your contacts joins it . Wait and see it grows exponentially

roberto.elena

I didn't say WhatsApp didn't steal users from Skype, what I meant to say is that it was irrelevant. Literally hundreds of millions of WhatsApp users have NEVER used Skype in their phones. I know for a fact that tens of millions of users in my country didn't even have a smartphone before they started using WhatsApp. Well, you say those were potential Skype users, that's very debatable. Anyway, Telegram doesn't have the advantage that WhatsApp has back then, for the most part it can only capture users that are already using other apps, and that is a very important limitation.

Antony

One point to stress on is that telegram's goal is not to make money unlike WhatsApp so it doesn't really matter if a 1 B users joins it . All what I care about are my friends and family .. and may I ask you why you use WhatsApp and not telegram?

roberto.elena

So, all you care about is your friends and family. Exactly the same that every WhatsApp user cares about, including me. It's not about the features, it's about being practical.

Antony

You are right here :)

xyz

Dude. I'll give you a list of my friends and relatives. Can you visit them all and bug them to install Telegram? I am not going to do it because I have better things to do than shill for a messaging app.

ather akber

I noticed one bug with unpinning the chats, if you've muted the chat/group and you unpin it, it cancels the mute

MrLockermanMY

yeah... happens for me too but the mute only cancels after i swiped the app from recent lists and opening it again.

Naxx ENVY

slow news day huh

Reeshabh Ranjan

I am feeling previleged as I gave this feedback months ago and after a week or something I got news that they are planning to do so. And they did this today. Man, was that me? :O

Once you pin a contact. You will lose your custom notification settings for that contact. You can obviously change it later. This pinned threads makes texting your bae that much easier.

Yuri Vidal

They need to implement Chanel's (or admin-only) groups. That's the only thing they still fall behind telegram. Very suseful for companies and corporate uses

Iamsecond

Betamax was technically better than VHS in many ways. Technical superiority isn't a guarantee of success.

WhatsApp has so many users because it lowered the entry bar: it uses your existing number for verification, and your existing contacts. Done. No accounts, or duplicated contact lists, or having to learn a new paradigm for people who have only ever used texting (SMS) - it feels like a natural extension of what you already do.

Their success is simply due to capturing that moment, and now they have the inertia of many users behind them. Their userbase is now their killer feature which trumps (ugh, he spoiled a word!) everything else. In fact, in this respect, texting (SMS) is the real king because it still has the biggest userbase, if you have to contact someone you use the best method for them - even if it's not your personal favourite.

It is simple to say 'get people to switch' I tried that with Duo, some people did, some people didn't. The ones that did try Duo liked it, but switched back because their OTHER contacts didn't switch. In the end I gave up on Duo because no-one used it.

Telegram users, here is a reality check: Features are never going to dethrone WhatsApp, and word of mouth is never going to dethrone WhatsApp. What will dethrone WhatsApp is one of two things: 1) WhatsApp makes a catastrophic error that makes people leave in droves. 2) An app comes along that makes the entry point even lower.

The first is unlikely, as even a data breach doesn't scare normal users most of the time. I think it would take repeated outages, (re)starting to charge or them spamming users with ads to the point where it's annoying.

On the second point however, WhatsApp still requires an app to be installed, and the conversations are still separate to text (SMS) messages meaning you have to check two sets of messages. This is why I believe Google could dominate by simply being the default installed texting app, and by being invisible to the user whether they are using texts or Allo. This 'trojan horse' approach worked well for iMessage, and I believe it would work for Allo. Those that say 'Hangouts tried that' miss the point that Hangouts didn't make it seamless - the whole thing was messy and required the user to do too much. Most people don't want lots of features, they just want things to WORK, which is what Apple always does so well.

Here are scenarios I can imagine: WhatsApp introduces SMS fallback and becomes even stronger, they then manage to broker a deal to be the default messaging app on Samsung and become the de-facto messaging standard for most people, Google releases a new App that licences WhatsApp as the back end. No other messaging apps stand a chance.

Or iMessage goes multi-platform, flexible Android users switch as a concession to their inflexible Apple friends who refuse to switch, businesses demand their staff use iMessage as it is universal and is already established. No other messaging apps stand a chance.

Whether any of this will happen I don't know, I'm just throwing out wild guesses and probably none of it will happen; yet, however preposterous you think my guesses are they are still more likely than Telegram gaining a larger share of the market.

Sorry Telegram users, I'm sure your messaging app is lovely, it may have the best features, it may innovate in ways I can only dream of, but it will never win.

Muzaffar

Whenever you see an article about whatsapp, there's 90% chance you'll see some telegram user say "Telegram is better!!!"

XP1

Gotta bump up those conversion rates.

avnow

this looks like a promising update, whatsapp being my main source of communication nowadays, my chat list stays crowded always. great opportunity to keep my loved one's chat pinned on the top. Kudos to whatsapp..